


meet me in the castle over the clouds

by minwonderlust



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Fluff, M/M, Minor Character Death, Timeskips, i just love kuroken okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 11:40:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27969977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minwonderlust/pseuds/minwonderlust
Summary: the three times kuroo dreams about what it’s like to marry kenma, and the one time he doesn’t.
Relationships: Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou
Comments: 2
Kudos: 41





	meet me in the castle over the clouds

The first time Kuroo dreams about marrying Kenma, he’s almost nine and he does it with eyes wide open in broad daylight.

He learns about the word in school when he hears his second grade English teacher talking to the fourth grade Science teacher about getting married. Kuroo remembers her saying that she knows it’s going to be the most beautiful thing ever.

He has no idea what it means to be married but he sensed the excitement and happiness in the teacher’s voice that he asked his dad about it the moment he got home that day. He’s young so anything that sounds exciting piques his interest the same way his favorite chocolate milkshake with different surprise toppings each week from the creamery down the block, or the neighbor’s dog learning new tricks every now and then to show him do.

 _Married_. It sounds weird coming out of his little mouth; how the foreign syllables roll out of his tongue almost strangely, unaware of the weight the word carries.

He is a little too young to fully understand but his dad still tells him in a way that he could. He says being married means being with someone who makes you happy; someone whom you choose to spend the rest of your life with. It should be that simple but even wiser and older people don’t understand that sometimes.

Kuroo asks him if he’s married to his mom and it’s got to be the prettiest sound he’s heard in all his eight years when his mom laughs at the question from behind the kitchen counter where she has just finished a fresh batch of the cookies they all love. It’s a hearty kind and her eyes are crescents but they’re also a pool of stars—all bright and warm—when she does.

His dad smiles too when he answers yes. It’s a quiet response but the way he pans his head to look at his wife screams his heart out louder than a thousand fireworks. Maybe Kuroo doesn’t know it right now but his father is proof that love isn’t all about shouting into the void or yelling over waters from mountain tops. Sometimes it’s just whispers of thank you when his mom hands them both a glass of milk to go with their cookies.

  
  
  


He is a little too young so the essence and implications of marriage might be something he wouldn’t be able to completely grasp but what he does understand right now is this: he wants to have someone like his mom and dad have each other.

And in that exact moment, Kenma comes running into his home like he always does on Fridays. Except this time, Kuroo thinks he wants to marry Kenma.

They’ve been friends for over a year now. It’s a small neighborhood and everyone knows everyone, so it was a nice surprise when a new family moved in the house across from theirs.

“Hi, I’m Kuroo.”

She never means it in a bad way but Kuroo’s mom always told him he’s an overeager child and he believed it when he stormed out of his home to meet the new family, and the kid who appears to be just his age goes into hiding behind his mom. Kuroo thought that maybe he’s shy but that’s okay because Kuroo wants to be friends and if they’re staying here, then they have all the time in the world to open and warm up to each other.

And It doesn’t take long before they started to consider each other as friends (although Kuroo already did the moment he saw Kenma).

He had so many stories and for the first few days, Kenma would just listen. Kenma didn’t say anything but he looked at Kuroo the entire time he talked so Kuroo thought it must be okay because Kenma would always come to his house or he would always invite Kuroo over at theirs for more.

One time, he just said something about not having friends from where they lived before they moved, and Kenma tells Kuroo he’s the first real friend he found.

Kuroo doesn’t say it but he’s happy that he is.

Unlike then, Kuroo says what’s on his mind this time when Kenma comes running into his home like he always does on Fridays. “I want to marry you, Kenma!”

Kenma is his best friend so if being married means being with someone who makes him happy for the rest of his life, then Kuroo would want to marry Kenma.

“Your dad doesn’t mean it like that, silly. You only marry someone whom you’re in love with.”

Kuroo doesn’t know for sure what it means but he thinks love is the way Kenma draws pictures for him across the skies with his little fingers, and in return Kuroo catches fireflies for him at night.

“But I love Kenma.”

Kuroo is almost seven and he does it with eyes wide open when he first dreams about marrying Kenma. It’s not the way everyone imagines it to be but if marrying someone means having them by your side for the rest of your life, then Kuroo wants that person to be Kenma.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————

The second time Kuroo dreams about marrying Kenma, he wakes up with a heavy heart. He’s eighteen instead of eight, and this time he already understands what it means to marry someone.

But now he also isn’t too sure he still wants that with Kenma.

Kenma is his best friend and Kuroo wants him by his side for the rest of his life, but marrying someone means being in love with them. He knows he loves Kenma, but he thinks that not in _that_ manner.

Kuroo lifts his head from his lap to have a look around and find Kenma while he rubs the sleep off his eyes. They’re in the same volleybal club, but Nekoma is a huge high school in Tokyo so they’re bound to meet more people. He and Kenma are fine on their own but Yaku, Kai and Tora have been constants in their lives, too.

“Yakkun, where’s Kenma?”

“Someone from his year asked to see him.”

They must be here to ask him to tutor them, right? But everyone knows Kuroo is the smarter one between him and Kenma so he wonders what they’re actually here for. 

_Whatever,_ he thinks.

Kuroo doesn’t mind too much about it until Kenma comes back with the most timid smile and a single rose in his hand. The color of his cheeks resembles the color of the flower, and Kuroo thinks it’s cute.

Then Kenma tells him he should go home first because he’s going out on a date, and Kuroo sees the color red flash before his eyes once more. It’s not like the pretty color present on Kenma’s cheeks and lips. It’s the color of flags that mean danger.

“What, like a study date?”

“No, Kuro. Like a _date_ date.”

Kuroo doesn’t know what to feel about that. He looks at Kenma whose back is against the gym wall while smiling at the rose he received, and it makes Kuroo’s own feelings sound just a bit like explosions in his ears.

But Kuroo has never really liked reading signs no matter how clear they are so he ignores the heavy feeling in his chest and the erratic beating of his heart when he loses himself in the sight of Kenma smiling because of someone else.

Kenma is his best friend and Kuroo wants him by his side for the rest of his life, but marrying someone means being in love with them. He loves Kenma, but he wants to make himself believe that not in that manner.

It’s been 10 years since Kuroo met Kenma when he dreams for a second time what it’s like marrying him. This time his heart breaks just a little because in his own dream, he’s just a bystander.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————

Sometime between the second and third dreams, Kuroo loses his mom. It’s hard on everyone, especially for his dad but he tells Kuroo that they’re going to be okay and he wants to believe in that more than anything.

It still hurts but they get to smile now because they know she’s at peace and that she’s lived her life to the fullest when she bid them a final goodbye and she smiled with the same crescent eyes that emit the warmth and radiance of a myriad of stars.

Stars are born dying, and Kuroo learned that the hard way when he watched the eyes he loves so much close shut and slowly lose their light.

But Kuroo also learns that stars die only to make new light.

Kuroo finds out through the darkest nights when he would cry himself to sleep because he misses her, and Kenma would hold him until he gets to dream away a world where she’s still with them.

The feelings he’s been trying to keep in the deepest recesses of his heart have always had a faint glow but Kenma has always been bad at feelings, his and others’, yet he’s still here handling Kuroo’s in his arms. And this makes Kuroo think he’s ready to welcome the light.

Right now, he’s in Kenma’s couch eating a new brownie recipe his best friend wants him to try. Kenma tells him it’s a privilege since he’s the first one but Kuroo knows for a fact that he’s being made a sacrificial lamb.

Kenma has taken a liking to baking a long time ago which is weird because he hates moving and getting out of bed, but Kuroo is just a tad bit thankful since Kuroo and his dad still get to eat cookies the way his mom used to make because Kenma always stood by her side to watch when she still could.

He stands by Kuroo’s side too, and Kuroo knows that’s enough for him.

He’s started to accept the fact that he’s in love with his best friend but this time he doesn’t think about marrying him. No. Because today he has Kenma the way they will always have his mother, and this...this is what matters.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————

Kuroo doesn’t get those dreams for a while but the third time he does, his feelings are a mix of both flying and falling.

He takes a quick look at the side of the bed that Kenma claimed as his, and thinks about how this person doesn’t even have to give him feathers for wings because the way he holds his hand and slips his fingers right through the spaces between his already makes him feel like he’s up above the clouds.

And it’s when Kenma tells him he loves him that he feels the fall. It’s not the kind of drop that happens when you fall asleep; it’s the same way waves crash towards the shore.

Kuroo has always been okay with what they had, but he figured Kenma wasn’t so somewhere between their second cups of coffee while they did their final papers for uni and the smell of Kenma’s cherry chapstick left a mark on his skin, he told Kuroo what it’s like to dream endlessly.

The sound of Kenma’s breathing soothes the signs of anxiety on his forehead so he closes his eyes to meet him in his sleep. He wants to tell him he’s tired of dreaming so that night he keeps a velvet box under his pillow and for the last time, he dreams about what it’s like to marry Kenma.

—————————————————————————————————————

The fourth time it happens, Kuroo doesn’t dream.

It was a long time ago but Kuroo remembers when his dad told him about being with someone who makes you happy, someone whom you choose to spend the rest of your life with, someone whom you’re in love with.

Sometimes we’re lucky enough to find them all in one person.

Kenma stands a heartbeat away from him but the space between them still feels like a lightyear. He wants to go home and kiss soft _stay, stay, stay_ on his shoulder and in return, Kenma would press _always, always, always_ on his cheek.

But tonight it isn’t just about celebrating them. He turns to look at their parents, and from a few tables away, he sees Kenma’s mom—also his for the longest time but lawfully now, too—still shedding tears. He looks at their friends from their high school volleyball team with the proud looks they’re giving both of them, and thinks that if there’s anyone who knows how far-fetched these all seemed at first, it would be them.

He takes time to look at everyone around them, and he knows this is the kind of love that lasts a lifetime. Tonight it’s not just about him and Kenma, it’s about everyone whom they love and who loves them.

“Kuro, are you okay?”

Kenma’s hands fly over his nape, and it’s when Kenma’s forehead meets his while he’s trying hard to stand on the tips of his toes, does Kuroo see the world in his eyes.

“With a husband like you? Always.”

When he said he wanted to marry Kenma at seven, he didn’t know the implications of it. At 18, he understood but thought he didn’t want it. Now at 26, he understood and he knew that when he dreams, he wants them with Kenma endlessly.

But tonight he doesn’t dream about what it’s like to marry Kenma. He’s already past that because now it’s real.


End file.
